Retro Kitchen: Designing Your Retro Cookbook, Part 1

Creating your own cookbook for family and friends? Want it to appear as if it's a family heirloom? That's what we were aiming for with our wedding favors (yes we didn't finish them in time for the wedding itself and we're going to be scrambling to finish in time for our 1st anniversary). Here are some tips for what you need to do, from font selection, to color choice, to section dividers, to necessary content.

First, your typeface. Many cookbooks will feature at least two typefaces - one san serif and one cursive - on their cover.

For the text itself, Times Roman features prominently.

Second, color. If your cookbook favors a particular country's cuisine, you may want to incorporate colors from that country's flag.

Remember that full color is more expensive than black and white or spot color. Unlike today's cookbooks which feature page upon page of full color photographs, many yesteryear cookbooks restrict color to the covers. For example, the two Italian cookbooks in the third photograph above, c.1977 and c.1964 from top to bottom, have no color within their pages.

Both their dust jackets, as well as their clothbound covers, feature color.

The softcover, The French Cookbook, c.1965, features a full color illustrated cover and then employs spot colors pulled from the cover throughout its pages.

Third, illustrations. While reference cookbooks, for example, The Talisman Italian Cook Book, may not include any graphics - line drawings or photographs - most are illustrated. All promotional cookbooks, such as the two in the first photograph, have either illustrations or photographs. The softcover, The French Cookbook, has both illustrations and photographs.

Illustrations can either be black and white or color. To see more examples, check out Flickr.

Fourth, glossary and index. Most cookbooks over 50 pages have both a glossary as well as an index.

In the next Designing Your Retro Cookbook, I'll cover the recipes themselves. Good luck with designing your retro cookbook!

Bon Apetit!

Eden

 

Credits: All images taken by Eden Hensley Silverstein for Recipes for the Good Life.

Retro Kitchen: All things Cooky/Cookie

Three of our friends are moving. When I lived in Texas moving into a new place meant a pie plate stacked high full of fresh homemade cookies. One of our friends, Mooflyfoof, is moving into a flat with a late 1940s oven, which of course has me thinking of Donna Reed and June Cleaver.

The Finds: Betty Crocker's Cooky Carnival, General Mills, c.1957, $4.99, Junk Savant; Betty Crocker's Cooky Book, General Mills, c.1963, First Edition, $9.99; JS's Junk.

She already has a Betty Crocker Cooky Book and she loves gadgets (she's got a Breville Pie Maker); so, maybe some cookies and a cookie press for a housewarming gift?

The Finds: Deluxe Cookie King Crank Type Cookie Press Spritz Gun, $22, Atty's Vintage; Cookie Press, $10, Smoky Mountain Kitchen; Cookie Press, Mirro, $8.99, Girl Makes Goods; Cookie Gun and Pastry Decorator, Wear Ever, $22, Vintage Goodies.

Don't worry I won't leave you thinking of cookies and without a recipe to try. Check back this afternoon for an old time favorite that my gram used make.

Credits: Product images taken by their respective Etsy sellers: Junk Savant; JS's Junk; Atty's Vintage; Smoky Mountain Kitchen; Girl Makes Goods; Vintage Goodies. 

Etsy Tuesday: Vintage Bar Accessories

Ever since I saw these Drink, Sip, and Cheers Couroc trays on The Haunted Lamp last week I've been hooked. Call Me Jasper (one of the online vintage shops I stalk) even just listed one.

10"x13" Drink Serving Tray, Couroc, c.1970s, $24, Call Me Jasper

As I was searching for other Couroc serving trays I realized it had been awhile since I featured a round up of fun and glamorous typed accessories. With parties on my mind, today's roundup are accessories for the bar - cocktail napkins and cocktail shakers.

The Finds: Cocktail napkin, $10, Prancing Goat Vintage; Cocktail shaker and jigger shot glass, $25, Thrift Store Divas; Cocktail shaker, c.1950s, $24, Claire's Faire Vintage; Touch of Elegance Cocktail napkins and coasters, Gibson, c.1960s, $18, West Side Vintage.

An added bonus of this round up? Retro drink recipes for an Old Fashioned, a Manhattan, a Daiquiri, a Dubonnet, an Alexander, and a Bronx. Cheers!

Credits: Product images taken by their respective Etsy sellers: Call Me Jasper; Prancing Goat Vintage; Thrift Store Divas; Claire's Faire Vintage; West Side Vintage. 

(You've Got)

On any given day, I have a To Do List that's a mile long. It's organized into Must Do (i.e. pay bills), Should Do (i.e. put clean laundry away, unbox the office), and Nice to Do (i.e. sew door draft pillows). There are some pet projects in the Nice to Do column that have been there for awhile. Sadly that's where this blog languished for a time.

You might remember that I resolved to "Do Your Best or not at all." for New Years. With this resolution in mind, I signed up for Blogging Your Way, co-taught by Holly Becker of decor8 and Leslie Shrewring of A Creative Mint. Our first homework assignment had us identify why we followed the blogs we did. This assignment took me awhile as I follow over 300 through Google Reader (and I went through each and every one of them). There are some I skim and read when an image or headline catches my eye. Then, there are those I eagerly anticipate. Those I anticipate cover a wide range of subjects - home renovation, interior design, fashion, cooking, packaging design, paper, and more. The one commonality? Personality. 

'Cause you've got - (personality) 
Walk - (personality) talk - (personality) 
Smile - (personality) charm - (personality) 
Love - (personality)

- (You've Got) Personality, lyrics found on International Lyrics Playground

Around the Thanksgiving Holidays, I had discovered a 1950 edition of Culinary Art Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook. The preface, written by the encyclopedia's editor Ruth Berolzheimer, struck a chord with me (complete excerpt). 

The Personality of a [blog] is as apparent as it is important. ... a mixture as familiar, friendly and exhilarating as a pine woods early on a summer morn. ... that gives a comforting feeling of confidence in the final product. ... but above all a feeling for the kind of beauty that women want about them in their work-a-day world. 

- Ruth Berolzheimer, Culinary Art Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook, c1950

With Berolzheimer's words in mind, I made myself a cup of tea, grabbed a blanket and SpriteKat, dumped stacks of magazine clippings onto our coffee table, and settled down in our loveseat to determine what I wanted my blog's personality to be (other than sporadic and scattered - it's current personality) when it grew up. 

After a few cups of tea, I had a mental image. 

The Finds (top row, left to right): 1950 GE Advertisement courtesy of Retro Cookbook; Home Baking Made Easy for Beginners and Experts, 1950s, courtesy of Zinnia Ridge; Betty Crocker's Cook Book for Boys and Girls, c.1957, $7.99, from sandmarg. Bottom Row: 1950s Tea Towel, $42, from Call Me Jasper; The See and Do Book of Cooking: Indoor and Outdoor, c.1959, $13, from Back Stash and Bygones. 

A little later - okay much cutting and gluing later - I had a mood board and a mission statement.

I want this blog to reflect the sights, sounds, and smells of my mom's kitchen where, after school, I did my homework at the dining room table while snacking on freshly made baked goods, and on weekends, I helped my mom make breakfast or bake a cake. 

Hopefully you'll pull up a chair and stay awhile. Everyone was always welcome in my mom's kitchen and she never let a soul go away hungry. Here you'll find the same hospitality with a modern retro twist. Enjoy!